I have not found this plant growing wild in my woods, however, I did take a few plants from my parents land(they had large patches of it growing wild), a couple of hundred miles from me and transplanted it and it thrived. I had to transplant it again when I moved, but now it has a nice home in the woods. It survived the second transplant even. It seems to be fairly hardy and I hope it continues to do well and multiply.

It spreads from runners under the ground. I have actually used this medicinally though you have to be very careful. Goldenseal is poisonous. But in the right amounts, it is good as an antibiotic and I have successfully used it as that without prescription drugs. I had made a small amount of tincture using vodka and the Goldenseal root. The roots need to be at least 4 or 5 years old, I believe.

A good antibiotic substitute though is Oregon Grape and I do not promote wildcrafting this herb for use. I will probably never touch mine. I had used a couple of the roots I dug for transplanting and haven't made any since. It is an endangered plant and needs to be protected.

I've entered into an effort to cultivate goldenseal in Hawai`i. There are those who believe it needs a freeze but finding any authority for that is difficult. I would very much appreciate any notes on efforts to grow this root in a tropical setting. My come from a Southern state but, as you all know, it freezes in the Southeast regularly.

I'm going to plant my three roots in different settings, one in a hole in a shady 'ohia forest and the other two in cinder and soil mix of different percentages raised on tables. Wish me well!

It is also known as Yellowroot. It is dug and sold for medicinal purposes. I'm not sure what price it brings today but about 9 years ago it only brought about $15.00 per dried pound (that's a lot of dried root to make a pound !).
I'm happy to say that my woods have many large colonies of it growing.